Women's Swimming and Diving Defeats Connecticut College

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA—Williams women's swimming and diving team defeated the Connecticut College Camels this afternoon 212-76 in their first home meet of the new year, bringing their dual-meet record to 7-1. Coming off of their meet against rival Amherst College, the Ephs were able to keep the energy up and continued to post impressive in-season performances.

For the first time this season, the Ephs' distance squad had a chance to test out their race plans in the 1650-yd freestyle. With a 1-2-3 finish by Alison McNamara '19 (17:39.29), Laura Westphal '21 (17:46.88), and Courtney Brown '21 (18:05) respectively, the women are in a good spot to fine-tune their races throughout the few weeks remaining before championship season. Following the mile, the Eph women touched first through fifth in the 200-yd freestyle. Gwyneth Maloy '21 led the charge to an in-season best of 1:53.75, followed closely by Molly Craig '21 at 1:54.51 for second. Although the women reaffirmed the Eph women stamina early on in the afternoon, Emma Waddell '18 once again posted notable performances in the sprint events. Waddell won both the 50-yd and 100-yd race, and finished with over a 1.7 second lead in the 100 at 52.05.

The Eph women had a number of impressive races in the stroke events. For instance, Caroline White '20 swept both the 100-yd and 200-yd breaststroke races, notably posting a season-best of 1:04.61 in the 100. Williams swept 1-2-3 in the 200-yd backstroke, with Gwyneth Maloy '21 claiming first at 2:06.11, followed by Molly Craig '21 for second (2:08.65), and Veronica Wolff '20 in third (2:09.00). Craig and Maloy flipped places in the final individual race of the afternoon, the 400-yd individual medley, a true test of a swimmer's endurance and diversity. Craig touched the wall for first by almost seven seconds at 4:31.58, with Maloy following for second at 4:38.43.

In the diving well, Gabby Mercier '21 and Molly Harrington '18 went unchallenged by the Camels, who are without a diving program. The lack of competition did not affect the Eph divers, however. Both women finished the 1-meter and 3-meter with season-best scores, executing some of their more difficult dives with ease.

As the Wiliams women look toward another week of difficult training, they are aware that their progress cannot stop here if they hope to achieve the lofty goals they set out for themselves. Head Coach Steven Kuster emphasized this sentiment to the team following their victory this afternoon: "Many of you are training more than ever. But we cannot let ourselves become complacent and forget our purpose or our desire to make progress every day. We still have a lot left to do." For one, their next competition, a tri-meet against Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University is less than a week away. The meet is set to begin at 2 pm EST at the Ephs' Samuelson-Muir Pool.